Every daycare has different policies and procedures when it comes to Potty training. It’s really important to know what they are, especially if your little one may not be grasping the potty training process as fast as you would like. The policies can either make or break your progress.
Note: The Center of Disease Control (CDC), does not allow daycare/school staff to wash soiled underwear, they are to be put in plastic bags and returned home for laundry (this was not something I was aware of going into my son’s journey). CDC Link
I researched both local and national daycare’s and here is a list of possible policies you could encounter. Your daycare may have different specific rules than listed, but they will most likely fall within this scope.
- Children are allowed up to 3 potty accidents a day. Once those three chances have been used up, child will be put into a pull-up for the remainder of the day.
- Children are put in pull-up during nap time until consistently wake up dry.
- Children must be kept in some sort of pull-up, underwear, or other training pant. Children are not permitted to go without any underwear.
- Child may be required to wear a pull-up over underwear during training, until consistently accident free.
- Children will not be forced to sit on the potty, but will be encouraged every 30 minutes. Child is allowed to sit on the potty as long as needed, but will not be forced to stay on the potty.
- Daycares may not offer the small portable potties for sanitary reasons.
- Child will not wear exclusively underwear until they are accident free for 2 weeks, accident free means no wet or soiled pulls-up.
- In order to wear underwear to school, child must be accident free for 3 consecutive days. If they have accidents at daycare, even if not at home, children will be returned to a pull-up until they are ready. Potty Trained- is defined as accident free for one week and have good verbal communication with staff.
- Children having consistent accidents may be asked to delay potty training and try again at a later date.
- Daycares will not potty train at daycare if potty training is not also being done at home.
Some to of these policies may be new to you. The key take away from this is make sure you have a good communication with your daycare providers, and everyone is on the same page before diving in.
Ask Questions!
Do n0t hesitate to ask questions as you go. Make sure you try to get an update everyday. When were the accidents, did they communicate, were they on there way to the bathroom or in the bathroom when it happened? It’s important to understand when accidents are happening at daycare so you can help work on those areas at home. Knowing the difference of being distracted while playing – no attempt, or in the bathroom and could not get there pants down in time – attempted. It is also important to note, maybe your child is consistently not communicating with one particular teacher. Occasionally children don’t feel as comfortable with, say, a newer employee, this can cause children to have more accidents during in those employee shifts.
It’s important to understand that I’m not trying to hate on daycares, I understand that many of these types of policies are put into place because of the amount of kids attending, and safety/sanitary standards. If one has an accident and they don’t catch it, it can create an unsanitary mess. Do I think some of them are a bit of a stretch (two solid weeks accident free)? Yes. From a parent perspective, some can seem nearly impossible to reach with a stubborn potty trainee. But at the end of the day, you need to help advocate for your child, you know what they are capable of.
I am a firm believer of bad days happen, one day they have multiple accidents, the next day no accidents. In a perfect world we would not have to send our kids to daycare and we could potty train them in the comfort of our own home and never have to send them to daycare in pull-ups. But this is real life and plenty of people send kids to daycare so they can work, and there is nothing wrong with that. Eventually you will have to leave the house and they will be faced with a large potty in a public restroom or the dreaded porta potty. Just know the more you expose them to these unusual, “imperfect” scenarios, during the process the more accustomed and less scary they will be.
Affiliated blog posts and Links:
For more tips on Potty Training a stubborn boy
For more details on my potty training journey
Portable potty chair I purchased to help with the public restrooms and porta potties. (Not an affiliate link)
